Bad news travels fast, so it did not take long for word to reach the three young students about the new law which had just been decreed. The government constructed a gigantic image of gold. All government officials of every rank and kind were summoned to attend the dedication. When the officials gathered, it was announced, “Peoples of all nations and languages, when you hear the music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image …” (RSV Dan. Ch. 3). The penalty for disobedience of the new law was death.

King Nebuchadnezzar had decreed the law and there were no exceptions. All the people, all government personnel, including the judges, obeyed and worshipped the golden image. However the three young Hebrew students refused to bow down and worship. It was not long before they were brought before the King. Their trial was swift and they were sentenced to death.

The three young men refused to conform to the super majority of the government officials who did worship the golden statute because the law violated their religion, which taught, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image…you shall not bow down to them or serve them…” (RSV Ex. 20:3,4).

They were willing to serve the King in managerial functions, but they would not surrender their conscience to the King and worship a false god.

Their sentence was commuted by the great Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Only then did Nebuchadnezzar recognized the sovereignty of the true God.

From the time of Pharaoh through the time of Rome and into the present, history records the absolute power of kings over the law and the individual person. What the king wanted was the law period. No inalienable rights were vested in the individual.

Under Roman rule, Jesus succinctly addressed the rights of conscience when he held up a coin with the image of Caesar and said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mk. 12:17, RSV).

In the year 1644 a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Samuel Rutherford, wrote a book entitled Lex Rex (sometimes translated the Law is King). Lex Rex, used sacred Scripture to show that the king and the judges were in fact under the laws of God. Lex Rex was like the budding forth of the Tree of Liberty and widely received by the people.

The king and judges did not like the concept that they were subject to a higher law; nor did they want the empowerment of the individual. But Lex Rex instructed that individuals not only had the right to disobey unjust laws that sought to violate individual freedoms, such as the right of conscience, but also the duty to resist such laws.

Rev. Rutherford was a professor at St. Andrews University, Scotland. His position was taken from him, his pay was stopped, he was ordered to be held under house arrest pending his trial for high treason. The government censored Lex Rex, and ordered the book to be burned. Are we not now seeing censorship across America?

The principles contained in the Holy Bible and Lex Rex found their way into the development of the Declaration of Independence and our federal and state constitutions. For example, the 1780 Constitution of Massachusetts provides in part for a “government of laws, and not of men.”

The current Constitution of North Carolina begins with, “We hold it to be self-evident that all persons are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain inalienable rights…(Art. I, Sec. 1)…All political power is vested in and derived from the people, all government of right originates from the people…” (Art. I, Sec. 2).

And as to rights of religious freedom, our state constitution provides:

“All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience. (Art. I, Sec. 13).

Why then did the Democrat Governor of North Carolina issue an Emergency Order No. 117, dated March 14, 2020 which prohibited Church services if more than 100 people assembled in any one space at one time, while exempting airports, bus and train stations, libraries, shopping malls and other facilities? By Executive Order No. 120 March 23, 2020, the North Carolina Governor further tightened his reach of civil control within the Church by declaring a mass gathering consisted of 50 people in one place at the same time, but again he exempted airports, bus and train stations and shopping malls.

Then the Governor issued Executive Order No. 121 on March 27, 2020, which defined “mass gatherings” to be “more than 10 persons in a single room, or single space at the same time…” This was without regard to the actual size applicable, even if it were a stadium. As always, the exemptions included airports, bus and train stations, libraries, etc., but not churches. Funerals were permitted but not to exceed 50 attendees. Nevada restricted church services to a maximum of 50 without regard to the size of the building, while allowing hundreds of patrons to gather in the casinos. See Calvary Chapel v. Sisolak, 140 S.C.2603 (2020).

By May 5, 2020, the North Carolina Governor issued Executive Order No. 138 which continued the definition of “mass gathering” to be more than 10 people but finally acknowledged the worship services were no longer included in the prohibition. Imagine, our constitutional right to worship had finally caught up with the status of a shopping mall, or a bus terminal.

Would the three students who refused to obey the King’s orders to fall down and worship the idol have obeyed the Governor?

Lex Rex, the king is under the law … well, maybe not the governor in North Carolina.

Michael Schmidt is an attorney in Laurinburg.